Darmin Nasution new Bapepam chief
Darmin Nasution new Bapepam chief
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Minister of Finance Yusuf Anwar officially installed Darmin
Nasution as the new chairman of the Capital Market Supervisory
Agency (Bapepam) on Tuesday.
Darmin will also remain in his current post as the finance
ministry's director general for financial institutions, until the
ministry completes the planned integration of the directorate
general with Bapepam.
Darmin -- who has been the Bapepam acting chairman since last
November -- takes over from Herwidayatmo, who is now an executive
director of the World Bank.
Yusuf also appointed J.B. Kristiadi -- a former finance
ministry official and current secretary at the Ministry of
Communications and Information -- as the finance ministry's new
secretary-general, replacing Agus Haryanto, who will become the
new executive director of the Asian Development Bank.
In a speech, Yusuf said he expected Darmin to improve the
agency's performance, which in turn would improve investor
confidence in the stock market.
"Besides being the market watchdog, Bapepam should also be an
advocate and a partner for investors," he said. "Bapepam must be
market friendly, protecting the interests of investors from
financial fraud."
Darmin said his top goal at the agency would be to achieve
continuous improvement in Bapepam's programs and record.
"The country's stock market is already well regulated and
dynamic -- as well as sensitive -- according to its own terms, so
what it needs is further improvement, not hasty policies," he
said. "And what I mean by improvement is providing what the
market needs, which is transparency and fairness for all
investors."
Darmin received a bachelor's degree in economics from the
University of Indonesia in Jakarta in 1976, and earned his
doctorate from the University Paris I Sorbonne in 1986.
Bapepam is a state agency under the finance ministry that
regulates and oversees the country's capital market. It also
investigates market irregularities and has the power to impose
fines.